Sports Arena

He Will Be Served

A backup catcher requires backup.

Allow me to introduce you to Bruce Maxwell. While the NFL has had literally scores and scores of players who have taken a knee during the national anthem this year, Maxwell is the only Major League player who joined the protest. If you hadn’t heard of Maxwell, you’re not alone. He is an obscure 26-year-old catcher for an obscure team, the Oakland A’s, and according to Baseball Reference his win against replacement score was zero, which means if he had never suited up to play this past season the A’s would have been no better or worse for it. In sum total, his positive production this season was nil.

Maxwell’s career to date has been so forgettable that the only noteworthy thing he has done in a baseball uniform is not stand for the anthem. For his efforts Maxwell banked over $500,000 this year, on the low end of the Major League salary scale.

Maxwell got himself into an alleged incident in an Alabama restaurant that shows him to be either blind to his own striking hypocrisy or a flat-out liar, and perhaps both. Either way it doesn’t reflect well on him.

To make a long story short, according to Maxwell he went to dine in an Alabama restaurant where he was denied service from his waiter because he was known for kneeling during the national anthem. Maxwell said, “He was like, ‘You’re the guy who took the knee? I voted for Trump and I stand for everything he stands for.’” Maxwell then had to complain to management to get served.

If Maxwell’s version of the alleged incident is correct, what is he complaining about? Didn’t the waiter do the exact thing Maxwell did, by making a political statement on the job? You would think Maxwell would have been understanding and supportive of this type of behavior as he is known for doing likewise. Both had work responsibilities and both went out of their way to make a customer or, in Maxwell’s case, customers furious by dragging their personal politics into the workplace. The fact that Maxwell doesn’t see the irony of this is both pathetic and laughable.

But that is Maxwell’s version of his restaurant encounter. According to what Matt Henry, the waiter in question at Keegan’s Public House, told Fox News, Maxwell has changed key facts of their encounter. “He is outright lying. This is really upsetting as he was given full service, I didn’t even know who Bruce Maxwell was. This all started because I carded his friend who wanted to order a beer.”

Maxwell was dining with an old high school friend who is a local Democratic councilman, Devyn Keith, along with another person who didn’t have a valid ID, and was refused a beer which according to Henry started the row. “I didn’t know anything about him or the kneeling. All I know is a friend of mine, 15 years ago, lost his job for serving someone a drink who happened to be underage, so if anyone looks under 30, I’m going to card them.”

Henry’s version is in part supported by the shift manager of duty that day, Anne Whalen. “Matt came to me and told me that a guy wanted a beer but his ID was not valid and I told him he absolutely could not give it to him, we can go to jail for that in the state of Alabama,” Whalen said.

“It was his friend causing all the fuss, none of us even knew who this baseball player was. I told him I had no idea who he was going on about,” she said. “Eventually Matt just asked if we could put another server on the table so I did.… I can’t believe the story.”

Even if Maxwell is telling the truth, he is guilty of your typical liberal hypocrisy. My political protest is noble, but when others do it that I disagree with, they must be stopped.

Maxwell was born in Germany, as his father was serving in the military at the time, and says he began his protests because he has experienced racial profiling throughout his life, and believes himself “very respectful.” I have no idea if his lifetime of experiencing racial profiling is correct or his imagination. But I do know by protesting the way he is doing, he has hurt and aggravated a lot of people who have never racially profiled anyone in their lives. Like all anthem kneelers they have done their cause more harm than good, which leads one to ask, then what is the point of it all?

As a postscript, this weekend Maxwell was arrested for allegedly pointing a gun at a female delivery person. One can only assume the arrest was just a matter of racial profiling.